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Overview of calcite/opal deposits at or near the proposed high-level nuclear waste site, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA: Pedogenic, hypogene, or both?

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Calcite/opal deposits (COD) at Yucca Mountain were studied with respect to their regional and field geology, petrology and petrography, chemistry and isotopic geochemistry, and fluid inclusions. They were also compared with true pedogenic deposits (TPD), groundwater spring deposits (GSD), and calcite vein deposits (CVD) in the subsurface. Some of the data are equivocal and can support either a hypogene or pedogenic origin for these deposits. However, Sr-, C-, and O-isotope, fluid inclusion, and other data favor a hypogene interpretation. A hypothesis that may account for all currently available data is that the COD precipitated from warm, CO2-rich water that episodically upwelled along faults during the Pleistocene, and which, upon reaching the surface, flowed downslope within existing alluvial, colluvial, eluvial, or soil deposits. Being formed near, or on, the topographic surface, the COD acquired characteristics of pedogenic deposits. This subject relates to the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear waste site.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 17 El Arco Drive, 87123, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    C. A. Hill

  2. Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography, Academy of Science of Russia, 630090, Siberian Division, Novosibirsk, Russia

    Y. V. Dublyansky

  3. Terrestrial Sciences Program, US Army Research Office, PO Box 12211, 27709, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    R. S. Harmon

  4. Technology and Resource Assessment Corporation, 3800 Arapahoe Ave., Suite 225, 80303, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    C. M. Schluter

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  1. C. A. Hill
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  2. Y. V. Dublyansky
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  3. R. S. Harmon
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  4. C. M. Schluter
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Hill, C.A., Dublyansky, Y.V., Harmon, R.S. et al. Overview of calcite/opal deposits at or near the proposed high-level nuclear waste site, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA: Pedogenic, hypogene, or both?. Geo 26, 69–88 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00768320

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